Whispers (40 page)

Her face felt hot and she knew she was blushing. What could she say that wouldn’t offend him? He was a nice guy, but... As she struggled to find the right words, he watched her.

“
I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “You think I’m too young. But that’s because you don’t know me.” He took a step closer, entering her personal space, reminding her again that, though she had nearly ten years on him, he was still a man. An attractive man with a look in his eyes that left her little doubt what he was thinking. She put a hand out to stop him from coming any closer. He covered it with his own and pressed it into his chest.

“
Can you feel my heart?” he said softly. “It’s going a million miles an hour. I’ve been trying to get you alone since you walked in the front door.”

“
I don’t know what to say, Zach. I think you’re very nice, but—”

“
Don’t dismiss me, Gracie, just because I was born a little late. I’m one of the good guys. I don’t lie. I don’t cheat. I won’t play you.”

He said the last as if he knew that someone else
had
played her. Was he thinking of Reilly? The thought distracted her and he took advantage, moved in closer. He wore a cologne that she liked and a dark blue shirt that contrasted the green-blue of his eyes. Still holding her hand to his heart, he moved his other to her face and tilted it up. She realized with a sense of disbelief that he was about to kiss her. While one part of her drew back, another part was curious. Zach was no slouch and she’d have had to be dead not to notice how attractive he was, but that didn’t change the fact that she wasn’t interested. She was dealing with enough confusion over her feelings for Reilly. She certainly didn’t need to add a younger man to the mix.

She pushed against his chest. “Zach, I—”

That’s when Reilly rounded the corner, startling a yip out of Juliet who’d been watching them with uncharacteristic calm. Gracie broke away from Zach, feeling at once guilty and angry about it. She didn’t owe Reilly anything and yet she knew that wasn’t true. They’d made a connection with each other and Gracie was not the kind of woman who took that lightly.

He stared for a moment, looking back and forth between the two of them. Zach leveled his eyes at Reilly and lifted his chin in a quick gesture that was clearly a challenge. Caught in the middle, Gracie didn’t know whether to be mad or flattered.

“
You look like you’re feeling better,” Reilly said, giving Zach a cold look.

“
Good as new,” he said cheerily. “Think I’ll go see if there’s anything to raid in the kitchen, though. I’m starving.”

The last was said with a suggestive look at Gracie that made her face burn with embarrassment. He sauntered away, leaving Reilly, Gracie, and a tension thick enough to cut in his wake.

Gracie bit her bottom lip, looking at Reilly from the corner of her eye. The muscles in his arms and chest were bunched, coiled tight as the rein he had on his anger. He turned and stalked into Grandma Beck’s bedroom. She followed, not sure if it was the right thing to do, but certain it was the only thing. As if sensing they might need privacy, Juliet curled up on the floor outside the door. Evidently, she had decided that Reilly really was a friend.

“
I can’t stand him around you,” he said, his back still to her.

“
I didn’t know he was waiting for me,” she said softly.

Reilly spun and she took a step back. He reached forward with such violence that for an instant she thought he would hurt her. But he merely caught the door with his fingertips and pushed it shut. The sound of the
click
sealing them in echoed around them. They stood facing each other in the silence that followed, neither speaking with words, but both communicating in a language of skin and emotions. He took one step forward and she was in his arms, pressed against the length of him. His mouth closed over hers in the same fluid motion. There was nothing hesitant, nothing questioning there. The kiss was filled with give, and yet it demanded take. That was fine. The knot of emotions firing inside her seemed to match the command of his touch.

His hands were up and under her T-shirt, pulling it over her head and throwing it on the floor. Her bra was next, off in a flash that left her breasts bare against the soft cotton of his shirt. She pulled at the hem and pushed it up over his flat belly. He reached behind his shoulders and finished tugging it up over his head. Then he gathered her to him once more and lifted her on tiptoes.

They stumbled and ended against the wall, his weight pushing her back into the unyielding plaster. Gracie felt possessed and she wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to bring herself closer than their hot skin would allow. She felt as if a flame were burning out of control within her, something that would demolish all she was if she didn’t get it under control. But she didn’t have the power to stop it from spreading. Already it had lit things deep inside her, starting a chain reaction of heat and need. What was wrong with her?

“
Don’t, Gracie,” he whispered, mouth pressed to hers.

“
Don’t, what?” she breathed back.

“
Don’t say no.”

In voicing it, he gave her the option. It would be her decision to stop and he would honor that. But in giving her the power, he took away the reason.

“
Say yes,” he muttered against the sensitive skin behind her ear. “Please say yes.”

And she did. She took his face between her hands and pulled it up so she could look deeply into his eyes. He stared back, letting her see the tight leash he had on his control, letting her know that the thought of her had haunted him in the same way thoughts of him had haunted her. She pulled him down and said, “Yes.”

She felt the muscles of his shoulders and chest bunch, and then he was lifting her in his arms. Her legs went around his hips, settling against the long hardness of him as he carried her to the narrow bed. They bounced as he followed her down. Her hands were at his waist, fumbling with the buttons of his jeans and his were pushing her skirt up so they could slide beneath the elastic of her panties. They tangled with each other, neither managing to reach the destination they desired. He pulled back a bit, resting his forehead on hers as he smiled.

“
I feel like a teenager with you.”

She did too. Awkward and unsure. But then again, she’d never felt this kind of consuming passion. This need that carried her beyond reason, beyond rationale. She wanted. She needed. She had to have. That was all she knew. He rolled on his back, unfastened his jeans, hooked his thumbs through to the waist of his boxers, and skimmed them off in one move. Gracie caught her breath, looking at him naked beside her.

“
Lock the door,” she said as she reached for the fastenings of her skirt. He stood and did as she said, giving her the full view of the lean length of him. He was beautiful in ways she couldn’t describe.

When he settled on the bed beside her, he let his eyes rove over her body, lingering at her breasts, the dip of her waist, the hollow of her belly, and the area below. His hand followed his eyes down and then up as his fingers found their way to the softness between her legs. Gracie sucked in a breath as he parted her thighs and touched her there. For a moment, she was too vulnerable, too exposed, too needy to respond. Reilly leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers, as if he understood her feelings and knew how to answer them. He kissed her while his fingers slipped inside and moved in a swift in and out that made her arch against him.

She breathed his name into his mouth and he held it. His tongue teased her lips, brushed the skin inside her mouth, tasted and taunted in a kiss that became the anchor to the rising feelings inside her. The pressure built so fast it caught her off guard and then she was bucking beneath his hand as a wave of white-hot pleasure washed over her. He pressed her into the mattress with his weight as he shifted to move between her legs. And then he paused, seemed to make a visible effort at control, cursed, and slid off.

“
Where are you…?”

And then she saw him fumbling in his wallet for something, realized what it was with a wash of embarrassment and immediate gratitude. She hadn’t even thought of it, so far gone was she. She heard the crackle of plastic, the snap of latex, and then he was deep inside her. He shuddered as he settled himself and looked into her eyes with a wonder that spoke to the awe flashing through every nerve inside her. When had she ever felt this way before? When had she been so carried away by the touch and feel of skin against skin that all other thought left her? Ever?

He began to move in a slow rhythm that started that spiraling tension building in her again. She wrapped her legs around his hips and held on as he brought her to the edge of control. His mouth was hot and demanding, his strokes hard and sure. She reveled in the feel of his muscles beneath her hands. The flexing of his chest against the soft skin of her breasts. And when he brought her, she took him along and they clung to each other as the waves of their climax took them beyond what either had ever known before. Afterward, he rolled onto his back and pulled her into the crook of his arm. They didn’t speak, but that was okay. They didn’t need to.

Chapter Thirty-Four

REILLY showered and went down first. He’d wanted to pull her in with him, but they both knew where that would lead. Right now there wasn’t time, but their lingering kiss told them both there’d be other opportunities. Gracie stepped under the shower alone, but feeling like a different woman from the one who’d woken up that morning. A better woman.

It had grown dark while she was upstairs and now shadows that had hovered benignly in the corners reached out their long fingers to embrace the night. Candles had been lit and placed in holders on the mantel. Analise had found a hurricane lamp that sat on the coffee table, casting a warm and golden glow throughout the room.

Feeling as if everyone knew what she’d been doing, Gracie said, “I think I’ll see if there’s anything to drink in the kitchen.”

She took one of the candles from the table, dipped its wick in a flame, and carried it with her. The shadows parted reluctantly as she passed and then gobbled up the light she left behind. Juliet flopped on the floor with the other dogs but Gracie didn’t signal her. She wasn’t going far and she knew without asking that Reilly would follow her.

The kitchen was silent and still as the heavy air. The scent of meat still simmered in the warmth, and the storm battered against the windows. Where the glass had broken in the back door, cardboard was taped over. The sheltered porch kept it from most of the rain, but there was a dark stain where it had grown wet. Her candle seemed weak in the clustered dark and she wished that she hadn’t assumed Reilly would be right behind her. But she didn’t want to go back out and admit she was scared of being alone.

She tamped down the anxious fear rising inside her and took another step forward. Something moved to her right. She froze, her startled scream lodged deep in her chest. The man she’d seen in her room last night stood only a foot away. Even by the dim glow of her candle, she recognized him. He was big, taller than Reilly even. His hat cast a dark shadow over his face so she couldn’t see his features, but she felt the intensity of his stare.

“
Who are you?” she asked.

He tilted his head to the side, as if confused by her words. She sensed a frustration in him and then a pressure that strummed hard against her fear. There was anger, too. Cautiously, she took a step back. He followed, rushing at her. The scream broke free and burst from her lips just as he reached for her. She screamed again, and tried to force her feet to lift, to run, but her limbs were numb from the horror that gripped her. Suddenly, the kitchen door burst open and Reilly rushed through.

She stumbled into him and dropped the candle on the floor. It flickered and went out, plunging them into complete darkness.

“
What happened?” he asked, pulling her into his arms.

“
There’s someone here,” she said in a low voice, staring in every direction at once. Every shadow was sinister, every corner filled with the unknown. And then a glow started by the door. At first it was no more than a light, weaker than the candle that had been doused. Then it grew and elongated, took form. Gracie’s heart seized as she watched it become a shape with legs and arms.

“
Shit.” Reilly breathed, pulling her closer.

A feeling of menace spread out from the man who hovered, lit from within. Gracie heard a high-pitched noise and realized it came from her own throat.

“
Who is it?” she asked, her voice low.

Because there was no doubt it was a person, a man with old-world clothes and a gun in his hand.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Junel896

Diablo Springs

THE night passed in a blur that left no time to think about Sawyer and what he may or may not be thinking about me. I told myself I was relieved, but I knew it was a lie. And each time I caught my breath and looked up, it was to find him doing the same. Aiken remained at my table through most of the night, gambling with skill but no luck. A rough-voiced miner sat to his right and trumped him at every hand. A smarter man would have left the table, but Aiken seemed determined to be the last player of the night. He nearly was. The men who had burst through the doors in the early afternoon seemed disinclined to leave the same way. They stayed and drank until the drunken rowdiness created a din all around us. For the most part they were respectful around me and the other girls but I was not fool enough to think that would last once they grew used to our presence.